You couldn’t breathe
With that knee on your neck
Pressing gingerly strongly confidently
For nine long minutes …
I can’t breathe
Even now
Even before
All along
As the stench of hatred fills the nostrils
from there till here, everywhere
Across countries, across cultures
And all those judgements because my religion is not the same
Or my caste or because I am female and I am dark
And the voices scream from within –“I too am human”
And your voice “Momma” before you became still
And the silence thereafter keeps piercing my ears
And I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe!
